A tribute to old Hindi film music. Songs of the 30s through the 60s.

Asha Bhosle

Usha Khanna’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar, and other female singers

October 31, 2024

Concluding the series of tributes to Usha Khanna with her best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers Usha Khanna’s debut score in Dil Deke Dekho (1959) sounded so much OP Nayyar-ish that you may get the impression that she too would exclude Lata Mangeshkar completely and her female singer would be predominantly Asha […]

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Kalyanji-Anandji’s best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers

September 28, 2024

Kalyanji-Anandji were extremely melodious composers. But in a crowded field at the top comprising Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Roshan, Madan Mohan, etc. they were not among the elite at the High Table. But 70s onwards the gods were kind to them. Kalyanji-Anandji showed amazing talent to adapt themselves to the new voices (read […]

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Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

May 29, 2021

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007) We saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar […]

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N Datta: The Third Musketeer for Asha Bhosle

September 8, 2020

Guest article by Hans Jakhar wishing Asha Bhosle (b. 8 September 1933) a very happy 87th birth anniversary and also greeting the unlucky genius N Datta (By now we all know that Asha Bhosle is the most recorded singer, and has sung far more songs than her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Yet Lata Mangeshkar came […]

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Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

September 8, 2019

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar (Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister […]

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Ravi’s best duets for Rafi

August 20, 2019

In my last post I covered Ravi’s best solo songs for Rafi. He composed about 250 songs for Rafi, including duets. It is a huge number in absolute as well as relative terms. Only two, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, have undisputedly composed more Rafi songs than him, as can be expected. Chitragupta is in the same […]

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Hemant Kumar’s duets with ‘other’ singers

Hemant Kumar, Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dutt

June 16, 2019

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his 99th birth anniversary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) I had written on the best duets of Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar in my first year of blogging. Then I had said: “Hemant Kumar in his voice brought the beauty of Bengal and melody of Rabindra Sangeet. […]

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Rafi’s duets by Roshan

November 5, 2018

My post on Rafi’s solos by Roshan appeared more than six years ago, several years before I started the series on the stalwart music directors. And the reason was simple: Roshan ranked among the top in my reckoning for Rafi songs, along with Naushad, SD Burman and OP Nayyar. Duets have no less importance in […]

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Roshan aur Madan Mohan ki Asha

September 8, 2018

Greeting Asha Bhosle on her 85th birthday (b. 8 September 1933) with her best songs by Roshan and Madan Mohan In Lata Mangeshkar era, music directors could be divided into two groups: Those who were like their wings chopped-off without her; and those who equally wanted her, but could survive even without her. (OP Nayyar […]

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Best songs of Asha Bhosle by OP Nayyar

September 8, 2016

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very Happy Birthday on her 83rd birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) When I wrote on my favourite ‘special’ songs of Asha Bhosle about five years ago, I was somewhat dismissive of her songs by OP Nayyar. At that time I viewed SoY as a स्वान्तः सुखाय self-indulgence. Five years down […]

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